Hot Again, Out Again

Being out all day yesterday in that awful heat must have baked my brain, because what did I do today on a day that was even hotter?  That's right, I went out again. I just couldn't resist the opportunity to explore the Ice Meadows yet again, especially with that wonderfully knowledgeable bunch of folks called the Thursday Naturalists.  We met this morning on the west bank of the Hudson, where little springs burbling out of the rocks create a habitat hospitable to a nice mix of wetland plants, while other, drier, sandy stretches of riverbank sustain another group of plants more suited to grassland habitats.

Yes, I know I've been visiting this place over and over the last few weeks,  but it's one of the richest sites for wildflowers in possibly the whole state, and almost every day something new comes into bloom.  Among the showiest of the flowers blooming today was the beautiful Swamp Milkweed.

We had to search a little harder to find the miniature flower called Dwarf St. Johnswort. 
Update: Oops! I should have known from those blood-red buds and narrow leaves that this is Canada St. Johnswort, not Dwarf SJ.  Dwarf SJ has even smaller flowers and shorter, oval leaves.

Damp mud that lies in the cracks of the rocks is where we look for Spatulate Sundew, which today was holding its small white flowers above its sparkling red insectivorous leaves.

Little spikes of Racemed Milkwort had opened their flowers, which in color and shape resemble miniature versions of the closely related milkwort, Fringed Polygala.

The dainty pale-blue flowers of Bedstraw Bellflower were sprawled among the grass on their hair-fine prickly stems.
 

Another bellflower, the larger and deeper blue Harebell, holds its flowers aloft on fine but sturdier stems.

One of the rare plants that mark this riverside site as a magnet for botanists is the state-threatened Buxbaum's Sedge, also known as Brown Bog Sedge.  Despite its plump lime-green seeds, it's hard to see it with all the other grasses and sedges crowding around, but eagle-eyed Ed Miller spotted it right away.

We had no trouble at all spotting this gorgeous Wood Lily, even though it looked like it was trying to hide in the shade of a surrounding Bush Honeysuckle shrub.

The yellow-green Tubercled Orchid has a much more subtle coloration, making it difficult to pick out from all the other green vegetation.  But few plants can escape the persistent searching of the Thursday Naturalists.

This orchid was a little past its prime, but we could still identify it by the little bump -- called a  tubercle -- on the flower's lower lip.

As the sun climbed higher and hotter in the sky, we next sought out a shadier spot, downstream at a place called Snake Rock.   Here we found not only some shade, but also a cooling breeze blowing off the river.

I would say these folks look like they're having a fine old time, enjoying a picnic lunch in the cooling shade.

Most of our group decided they'd had enough of baking under the sun for the day, but friends Win and Sue still hadn't yet had enough botanizing, so they joined me on the opposite side of the river for additional flower hunting.

Many of the same flowers grow on this east side of the river as do on the opposite shore, but some are more populous over here, especially the blazing orange Butterfly Weed.

Although we found this Goldenrod Crab Spider on a bare stalk nearby, I wonder if it had recently been lurking in that Butterfly Weed, since it had assumed an equally vivid coloration that would have provided effective camouflage for this wily predator.

It didn't take much searching to find the rare, state-threatened Whip Nutrush (Scleria triglomerata), especially now, with its tiny round seeds turning a pearly white, a distinctive feature of this sedge-like plant.

Eventually, the sweltering heat weakened our resolve to further explore this site, and we fled the sun-baked shore of the river to find shade in the pine woods nearby.  But there we discovered still more botanical treasures, such as this patch of One-flowered Pyrola that Sue and Win are trying to photograph.

Midsummer's Day Madness

Summer arrived today, and with it a day of suffocating heat.  What kind of crazy people would spend a stifling day like today tromping about in a wetland, blazing sun pounding down like a load of hot bricks on our backs, sweat washing the eyeglasses right off our noses?   Well, they don't call us wildflower nuts for nothing!  That's my friend Bob above, a fellow . . .  er, nature enthusiast, who kindly drove me some hours away to a nature preserve known to be home to the incomparable Showy Lady's Slipper (Cypripedium reginae), truly the queen of the Lady's Slippers.

I'm sure that only a fellow orchid enthusiast would understand why we had to get out to this secret spot today, to catch these incredibly beautiful native orchids while they were still in bloom.  I can't think of anything I could say to convince other folks we hadn't lost our minds.  Perhaps a few photos can serve as explanation.

 When we first walked into this wetland, we didn't see a single Lady's Slipper and we began to worry that we had missed their bloom time.  But then Bob let out a yell:  Here's one!  By the time we were done exploring the area, we had counted over a hundred, most in full glorious bloom, a few past their prime, but many more still in bud.  What a day!


Those Lady's Slippers weren't the only orchids we found in there, either.  Small groups of the White Bog Orchis (Habeneria dilatata) were scattered about the wetland,  holding tall spikes of snowy white blooms well above the surrounding greenery.

I had nearly despaired of getting a close-up shot of this orchid's little blooms until Bob pulled out a white folding screen and held it behind the flower spike.  At last my camera decided to focus on the flower instead of all the grasses beyond it.

Update:  Got a note from a blog reader asking if I had noticed the crab spider lurking among the florets.  I had not, but I do now!  Can you see it up there on the top right?


We were truly startled to find this single Grass Pink (Calopogon tuberosus) in bloom, since another bog where we know these bright pink orchids grow abundantly has shown no sign of them as yet.  

Finding that Grass Pink made it a three-orchid day, enough to satisfy the very nuttiest of nature nuts.  But what really crowned the day was discovering this little patch of Pink Pyrola (Pyrola asarifolia), a flower that's at least as rare in New York as the Showy Lady's Slippers.   We owe this find to a group of orchid enthusiasts who entered the preserve while we were just leaving and pointed  this lovely little flower out to us.

There were many butterflies flitting about the wetland, but none would sit still for a photo.  But never mind.  This baby butterfly did, and it's almost as pretty as its adult form, the Baltimore Checkerspot Butterfly, will be.

Blooms and Bugs

This is turning out to be a very flower-filled week, with far-flung excursions planned for the rest of it.  So yesterday and today I hurried off to catch up on some of my favorite places close to home.  My first stop yesterday was Woods Hollow Nature Preserve in Ballston Spa, where almost as soon as I stepped from my car, I was nearly bowled over by the beauty of this meadow chock full of snowy Oxeye Daisies and pretty pink Crown Vetch.

That sunny meadow was so full of just those two flowers,  I had to really search to locate the one I had come to find.  But find it I did:  Spiked Lobelia.

The air over the meadow was filled with darting and dashing dragonflies, and I couldn't believe my good luck when this Widow Skimmer sat still for its portrait, the sun glinting off its gossamer wings and touching its body with gold.

These two flower beetles were too wrapped up in each other to pay me the slightest mind, as I poked my camera into their intimate space.

There were several species of tiny hoverflies zipping in and out of the Common Milkweed flowers, and this tiger-tailed one took a moment to rest on a blade of grass.

As the mid-day heat bore down on my head, I was glad to seek the shade of the pine woods that makes up much of Woods Hollow.

It's under these pines that I know to look for the elusive Checkered Rattlesnake Plantain.  I always find the distinctively patterned basal leaves of many plants, but finding a flowering stalk is not always a given.  This year, I found but two flower stalks among some 20 plants in one area.  Sometime in the next few weeks, those tight green buds will open into tiny white orchids.

Sharing that same pine-needled forest floor were many Pipsissewa plants, easily seen, with their glossy evergreen leaves.  And as with the Rattlesnake Plantain, not so easy to find are the occasional flower clusters.

Tiny flies have no problem finding these flowers.  I don't think I have ever turned over one of these waxy pink blooms when I didn't find it crawling with little black flies.

When and where Pipsissewa blooms, it's almost a guarantee  that Shinleaf Pyrola will not be far away.

I see I wasn't the first one to find this lovely fat boletus mushroom with the rusty brown cap.

I next headed down to the pond that forms the heart of Woods Hollow Preserve, so cool and green and shady on this hot summer day.

There's a sweet little brook that flows into this pond, and its water (which must be spring-fed) is always icy cold and refreshing to my hot dusty feet.

I didn't have to wade far to find American Brooklime with its dainty little blue flowers, one of our native Speedwells.

 *  *  *

Well, today was even hotter and muggier than yesterday, and I really thought twice about visiting Bog Meadow Nature Preserve just outside Saratoga, a beautiful trail but which is more infested with Deer Flies than any other place I know.  Ah, but then I remembered my Tred-not Deerfly Patches, which, as this photo reveals,  saved me from being bitten by these 18 flies.

But not all the bugs along this trail are the kind we dread.   This butterfly eluded me for the longest time, but eventually it lit on a leaf and spread its glorious wings.   If it had closed its wings, it would have looked more like a dead brown leaf.  But then I could have determined if it was a Question Mark or a Comma, according to little white marks that can only be seen on the underside of the wings.  One thing I can say for sure is that this is one of the angel-winged butterflies, a species that will winter over as adults.

Update:  A loyal reader has left a comment positively IDing this butterfly as an Eastern Comma (Polygonia comma), noting the three dark spots across the middle of the forewing.  A Question Mark Butterfly would have a 4th spot that looks like a dash.

This little guy, on the other hand, has underwings  that are showier than the top.  I believe that this is an Eastern Eyed Brown, but there are several brown butterflies that look very much alike, and this one was not about to let me examine it closely.  It's a wonder I even got this close to it.

I hope this little Candy-striped Leafhopper is not some dreaded pest, because I am always delighted to see one.  Have you ever seen a little bug more colorfully attired?

It even sat still long enough for me to get a side view, so I could see its vivid yellow underside.

This tiny blue leafhopper, species unknown, did not sit still for one moment, so my camera had to keep chasing it as fast as it ran away.  It was quite a vivid blue, and if it had not been so colorful, I never would have noticed it.

And if I hadn't been chasing that little blue bug all over the leaves, I never would have turned this leaf over to find this little green caterpillar all snug in its silken hammock.  What a lovely sheer veil it has spun for itself.  I wonder if it's just resting in there, or is it getting ready to undergo metamorphosis?